Politics, power and the Chinese Maritime Customs: The Qing restoration and the ascent of Robert Hart

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 40, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 549-581

  Horowitz, Richard S ^a  

^a CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CORRUPTION; POLITICAL POWER;

EID: 33748308682     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: 14698099     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X06002113     Document Type: Article

References (89)

1. Juliet Bredon, Sir Robert Hart: The Romance of a Great Career (London: Hutchinson, 1909), 111. This paper was presented at the Workshop on Sir Robert Hart, Queens University Belfast, September 2003. I am grateful to the organizers and the participants at the workshop for their comments, to my colleagues in the History Department, California State University, Northridge for ideas and encouragement at an early stage, and to Hans van de Ven for many concrete suggestions on how to improve this essay.
2. Chouban yiwu shimo, tongzhi chao (Taipei reprint, n.d.) 40:13b [hereafter YWSM-TZ] For a more detailed discussion of the memorandum see Richard J. Smith, John K. Fairbank, Katherine F. Bruner, Robert Hart and China's Early Modernization: His Journals, 1863-1866 (Cambridge MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1991), 284-92
3. and Mary Clabaugh Wright, Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T'ung-chih Restoration, 1862-1874 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1957), 263-8.
4. Bredon, 5 and passim.
5. Hosea Ballou Morse, International Relations of the Chinese Empire (London: Longmans, Green & co., 1910-1918) 2:138-41, 190-1, 364-7.
6. Stanley F. Wright, Hart and the Chinese Customs (Belfast: Wm. Mullan, 1950), 855.
7. See also a similar account by the last foreign Inspector General L. K. Little 'Introduction' in The I. G. in Peking: Letters of Robert Hart Chinese Maritime Customs, 1868-1907, ed. John King Fairbank, Katherine Frost Bruner, Elizabeth MacLeod Matheson (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1975) Vol. 1, 1-34.
8. Katherine Bruner, John K. Fairbank, Richard J. Smith, Entering China's Service: Robert Hart's Journals, 1854-1863 (Cambridge MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1986), 324-32.
9. Mary Clabaugh Wright, 21-42;
10. Britten Dean, China and Great Britain: The Diplomacy of Commercial Relations, 1860-1864 (Cambridge, Mass: East Asian Research Center, 1974), 128-36.
11. The concept of semi-colonialism (and its alter ego informal empire) is systematically developed in Jurgen Osterhammel, 'Semi-Colonalism and Informal Empire in Twentieth Century China: Towards a Framework of Analysis' in Imperialism and After: Continuities and Discontinuities, ed. Wolfgang Mommsen and Jurgen Osterhammel (London: 1986)
12. see also Osterhammel, 'Britain and China 1842-1914' in The Oxford History of the British Empire, Volume III: The Nineteenth Century, ed. Andrew Porter (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 146-69.
13. Bruner et al., 240-4
14. Richard S. Horowitz, 'Mandarins and Customs Inspectors,' Papers on Chinese History, 7 (1998): 43-4.
15. The documents for this debate are in Chouban yiwu shimo, xianfeng (Chengdu Zhonghua shuju, 1980) [hereafter YWSM-XF] 7:2269-2301.
16. Wenxiang, 'Wen wenzhong gong ziding nianpu' in idem., Wen wenzhong gong shilue (n.p. 1882), 2:32-32b.
17. Ibid., 2:33.
18. On the negotiations, see Masataka Banno, China and the West 1858-1861, The Origins of the Tsungli Yamen (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964), 170-201.
19. YWSM-XF, vol. 7, 2674.
20. 'Self-strengthening' was used by the Peace Commissioners in a memorial in January 1861 referring specifically to military reform though in time it was used much more broadly, see YWSM-XF, vol. 8, 2700-2702. The self-strengthening movement is a term conventionally used by historians to refer to the efforts to adapt western technology between 1860 and 1894. The term 'restoration' began to be used by officials in the late 1860s, as a celebratory description of the revival from during the Tongzhi reign (1862-1874) from the crises of the preceding fifteen years.: See Mary Clabaugh Wright, 43-6 for a discussion of the concept of restoration and passim for a magisterial overview.
21. The preceding paragraphs are summarized from Richard S. Horowitz, 'Central Power and State Making: The Zongli Yamen and Self-Strengthening in China, 1860-1880,' Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard university, 1998, 34-60.
22. Mary Clabaugh Wright, 70-1.
23. The account of the coup follows Luke S. K. Kwong, 'Imperial Authority in Crisis: An Interpretation of the Coup D'e'tat of 1861' Modern Asian Studies 17.2 (1983): 221-38
24. see also Mary Clabaugh Wright, 16-20. A useful political narrative from standard published primary sources is Xu Liding, Xianfeng tongzhi di (Changchun: Jilin wen shi chubanshe, 1993), 241-94.
25. Bruner, et al., 324-32.
26. For example see Lien-sheng Yang, 'The Concept of Pao as a Basis for Social Relations in China' in Chinese Thought and Institutions, ed. John K. Fairbank (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), 291-309
27. and Ambrose Yeo-chi King, 'Kuan-hsi and Network Building: A Sociological Interpretation,' Daedalus 120.2 (1991): 63-84.
28. See Preston Torbert, The Ch'ing Imperial Household Department: A Study of its Organization and Principal Functions, 1662-1796 (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977), ch. 4.
29. Banno, 27-8.
30. YWSM-XF, vol. 8, 2918-2924.
31. Horowitz, 'Mandarins and Customs Inspectors,' 44-7.
32. For a breakdown of income and expenditures, see Chen Wenjin, 'Qingdai zhi zongli yamen ji qi jingfei' Zhongguo jindai jingji shi yanjiu jikan, 1.1 (1932), 49-59. For 1864-66 the reports in the Grand Council files of the First National Historical Archives in Beijing provide more detail, see junjichu lufu yangwu 9430-15, 9430-31, 9431-2. On the Firearms Division in the Manchurian campaign, see Wenxiang, 3:48-54.
33. The number of these loans is open to debate, Zhongguo renmin yinhang, comp, Zhongguo Qingdai waizhai shi ziliao (Beijing: Zhongguo jin rong chu ban she, 1991), 137 lists eighteen, but the evidence is fragmentary (see the documentation pp. 1-23).
34. Zongli Yamen Archives, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei [hereafter ZY] 01-32/1 (1), Zeng-Guofan-Zongli Yamen, TZ6.6.5 (July 6, 1867). Zongli Yamen-Hede (Robert Hart) TZ6.6.13 (July 14, 1867). On FitzRoy's concerns see China, Maritime Customs, Documents Illustrative of the Origin, Development and Activities of the Chinese Customs Service (Shanghai: Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs, 1937-1940), vi, 228.
35. ZY 01-32/1 (1), Hede (Robert Hart)-Zongli Yamen TZ6.6.21 (22 July 1867).
36. ZY 01-32/1 (1), Zongli Yamen-Zeng Guofan, TZ 6.7.1 (31 July 1867).
37. A circular to all Customs commissioners on this matter was issued 9 September 1867. See China, Imperial Maritime Customs: Inspector Generals Circulars, First Series 1861-1867 (Shanghai, 1878), p. 122.
38. Hart to FitzRoy 22 January, 1868 in China, Maritime Customs, Documents Illustrative of the Origin, Development and Activities of the Chinese Customs Service (Shanghai: Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs, 1937-1940), vi, 228.
39. On Hart's attitudes see also Stanley F. Wright, 363-5
40. on the role of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in the Qing foreign loans see Frank H. H. King, The Hong Kong Bank in Late Imperial China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 535-62. On the Zongli Yamen's intervention, Horowitz, 'Central Power,' 239-41.
41. David F. Rennie, Peking and the Pekinese During the First Year of the British Embassy in Peking (London: John Murray, 1864), vol. 1, 264.
42. Xi Yufu, et al., comps., Huangchao zhengdian leizuan (n.p., 1903), 101:1-4b. I have not found an English translation of the regulations.
43. L. K. Little, 11. This follows Hart's view in Circular No. 8 discussed below - but ignores subsequent experience.
44. On institutional controls see Thomas Metzger, Internal Organizations of the Ch'ing Bureaucracy: Legal, Normative, and Communications Aspects (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973)
45. on the communications system, Silas Hsiu-liang Wu 'The Memorial Systems of The Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1911).' Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 27. (1967): 7-75.
46. I'm grateful to Peter Perdue for pressing me on the comparison to tusi some years ago. John K. Fairbank, 'Synarchy Under the Treaties' in Chinese Thought and Institutions, ed. John K. Fairbank (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957)
47. John Herman, 'Empire in the Southwest: Early Qing Reforms to the Native Chieftain System,' Journal of Asian Studies, 56.1(1997): 47-74
48. James Millward, Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759-1864 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), 33.
49. On the mufu system see Kenneth Folsom, Friends, Guests and Colleagues: The Mu-fu System in Late Ch'ing China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968),
50. and Jonathan Porter, Tseng Kuo-fan's Private Bureaucracy (Berkeley: Center for Chinese Studies, 1972).
51. The relationship between individual Customs officers and the private staffs of provincial officials deserves more attention. Gustav Detring was very close to Li Hongzhang, and at Li's request, remained commissioner at Tianjin for two decades and was sometimes viewed as a member of Li's mufu.
52. Huangchao zhengdian leizuan, 101:1B-2.
53. Robert Hart 'Circular No. 8 of 1864,' in China, Imperial Maritime Customs, IV, Service Series No. 7: Inspector General's Circulars: First Series, 1861-1875 (Shanghai: Inspectorate General of Customs 1879), 4. Another important expression of essentially the same ideas were the Provisional Instructions for the Guidance of the In-Door Staff (Shanghai, 1878). The copy at UCLA's Young Research Library was originally in the possession of Customs Commissioner Alfred Hippisley, and marginal notations indicate it was taken very seriously.
54. Burlingame to Seward, 5 July 1864 in Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session Thirty-Eight Congress, Part III (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1865), 436-7
55. Little, 12-13.
56. The precise circumstances of FitzRoy's departure are somewhat unclear, but coincide with the dispute with Hart over the loans. While Hart dismissed FitzRoy's concerns about legal liability, they deserve a closer look. The commissioners were not recipients of actual revenues, so they were simply not in a position to enforce loan payments. Moreover, Hans van de Ven has pointed out the odd legal position of Customs Commissioners - Customs House property was in their name. Documents Illustrative of the Origin, Development and Activities of the Chinese Customs Service, vi, 228.
57. For example, see China. Maritime Customs, Service List (Shanghai: Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General, 1884).
58. Morse, International Relations, 3: 404.
59. Hart, 'Circular No. 8,' 5.
60. See Stanley Wright, 262-7. For a retrospective account see Little, 15-17.
61. Smith, Fairbank, Bruner, 161-2, 164, 166.
62. Ibid., 162-7, 184.
63. Huangchao zhengdian leizuan, 101:1-2.
64. Robert Hart to E. B. Drew, 5 August 1868, No. 18 Kiukiang Series, in the E. B. Drew collection, Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Harvard-Yenching Library.
65. The account of the Jiujiang affair in the following paragraphs is based on Hart to Drew, 5 August 1868, No. 19 Kiukiang Series, in the E. B. Drew Collection Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Harvard-Yenching Library.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Ibid. For praise of Drew's performance in Jiujiang see Hart-Campbell, 26 February, 1869, in Fairbank, Bruner and Matheson, 47.
69. Hart to Drew, 5 August, 1868, No. 19.
70. Thirty years later in the aftermath of the Boxer War, Hart did play a role in trying to shape British opinion and to moderate the vengeful attitude of politicians and the press. His essays were later collected in the volume These from the Land of Sinim (London: Chapman, 1903).
71. Horowitz, 'Mandarins and Customs Inspectors.,' 44-7.
72. Smith, Fairbank, and Bruner, 142.
73. Robert Hart, 'The Foreign Customs Establishment in China,' Great Britain, House of Commons, Sessional Papers 1865. China No. 1.
74. Ibid., 11.
75. Ibid., 12.
76. Ibid., 11.
77. For a careful account of these negotiations, see Mary Clabaugh Wright, Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism, 279-95.
78. British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Prints Part I, Series E., volume 20 China's Rehabilitation and Treaty Revision, 1866-1869 (Silver Spring: University Publications, 1994), 275.
79. British Documents, 276. See also the entry for 12 June 1868 in the unpublished manuscript Journal of Robert Hart, Department of Special Collections, Queen's University Library, Belfast.
80. British Documents, 285. Entries in Hart's unpublished Journal for the months of June and July indicates frequent meetings with the Yamen, and assessments of Wenxiang's positions that coincide with the opinions expressed in the letters sent to Alcock a day or two later. Journal of Robert Hart, entries for 12 June, 29 June, 1 July, 4 July, 13 July, 15 July, 17 July 1868.
81. British Documents, 287-88.
82. British Documents, 288.
83. British Documents, 301-3. Wenxiang argued that foreign residence could only be allowed outside the Treaty Ports if they were subject to Chinese law.
84. Mary Clabaugh Wright, 290-5.
85. British Documents, 303-4.
86. YWSM-TZ 41:41-41b.
87. Morse, 3: 404-5.
88. Little, 3
89. Hu Sheng, Imperialism and Chinese Politics (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1981), 62-9.